


A Little Bit Faster and a Whole Lot Worse

by orphan_account



Category: Demi Lovato (Musician), Ed Sheeran - Fandom, Little Mix (Band), One Direction (Band), Taylor Swift (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Drinking, Drug Use, F/F, F/M, Gay Sex, M/M, Teacher-Student Relationship, Underage Drinking, Unrequited Love, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-26
Packaged: 2017-11-22 07:28:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/607332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry has been a "good kid" for 18 years. It's not as if he planned on shedding his reputation like a second skin at Uni. It's just that there never seemed to have been an alternative. Now he's having affairs with his professors and getting another tattoo every weekend and stealing liquor and cutting class to go to underground punk shows with the mysterious Liam Payne. Maybe it's his roommate, Zayn "Live Fast, Die Young" Malik, who's the bad influence. Or it could be Harry's inexplicable attraction to Liam's one-time foster brother, Niall Horan, who also happens to be one of the star jocks on the footie team. But Harry is beginning to suspect that the blame lies with Louis and the Fuck-Ups, that bloody queer-core band that threatens to steal White Eskimo's title at this year's Battle of the Bands. </p>
<p>University AU. Every chapter follows a different character.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Harry

 There had been a mistake with the rooming arangement, or perhaps it had been a blessing in disguise. Harry was rooming with a second-year art student, not a fellow first-year, with an exotic-sounding name. Zayn Malik. He'd never met a _Zayn_ before, Holmes Chapel was terribly homogenized and Harry'd been fairly sheltered all of his life. Either way, Zayn was absent for the duration of Harry's move-in, though his posessions littered the far side of the room, staking his claim. Harry went through the usual new-student routine of setting up and trying not to cry in front of his mum and older sister. He failed miserably.

Harry did his best to avoid his mother's eyes as he fussed with the rows of pictures on his desk, wasting time until he had to confront the fact that he was leaving home for good. Had it been this hard when Gemma moved out? He couldn't remember, but then Gemma wasn't as close with their mother as he was. Finally he could put it off no longer and he embraced his mum, burying his face in her shoulder so he could pretend he wasn't crying. 

"You're going to have a lovely time here. Work hard and learn a lot, alright?" His mother murmured thickly. He nodded, trusting his voice to break if he relied upon it. "I can't believe my baby is already grown up. Be sure to call me on Sunday. Don't forget about your poor mother."

"Yes, mum," Harry managed to choke.

"I love you. No matter how big you get you always, always, be my baby. Remember that, alright? I love you."

"Love you too, mum," Harry sniffled. And then she was out of the room in the flash. Harry sat for a moment gathering himself. He glanced through the open window as he mother turned one last time. 

"Goodbye, darling!" 

Harry just waved, smiling damply. When he turned around, he nearly jumped out of his skin. Lounging on the other bed was a dark boy with think black hair and tattooed forearms.

"Oh, hello," Harry said, a bit unsure of himself.

"Di' ah sceh' yeh? Soddy. Dihn't mehn ta snehk oop," The boy apologized, sitting up and streching langiudly. "Ma nem's Zen." He offered Harry a hand.

"I'm Harry," Harry replied, shaking Zayn's hand. He tried not to stare at Zayn's tattooes, feeling vaguely intimidated, despite the fact that he had easily had 4 centimetres on the lad.

"D'ju wan' ge' uh cooppa?" Zayn jerked his head in the vague direction of the campus coffeeshop. Harry nodded mutely, tugging on a sweater quickly.

 

 

Zayn didn't talk much, but Harry didn't mind. The silence was companionable, and at any rate, Zayn seemed nice enough. He led the way across the quad, past a group of boys playing pick-up footie.

"'Ay Zehn! Lung tehm, no seh!" A bottle-blonde with a thick Irish accent tackled Zayn, seemingly out of nowhere.

"G'auf meh, Nyull" Zayn shoved the boy, Niall, off of him, but he didn't seem angry. Zayn stood up, patting his hair cautiously.

"I' dis da new rummate, den?" Niall jerked his head at Harry.

"Yeh. Harreh, Nyull. Nyull, Harreh." Zayn introduced quickly.

"Yur frush meht, den?" Niall laughed at his own joke, shaking Harry's hand vigorously. Harry smiled shyly. "Moy sents, heh tawks lessen you." Niall nodded at Zayn, who shrugged non-commitally.

"Cum un, Harreh. Ah'll seh ya ladder, Nyull." Zayn continues along the path, Harry trailing behind him like a lost puppy.

"Catch yeh boyz letteh," Niall waved. "Huhv foon."

Niall was interesting, Harry decided, fighting the temptation to sneak another glance at him over his shoulder.

 

The coffeeshop on campus was small, but mercifully empty. It reminded Harry of home when he stepped inside, he'd spend his afternoon working in a bakery during secondary.

"Leeyum!" Zayn's face split into a grin when he spotted the boy behind the counter.

"Zayn!" Liam had a posh accent, like he was out of London, and his arms were thickly banded with muscles beneath his t-shirt. When he went to hug Zayn, he lifted him clear off the ground. "An' who's this?" Liam smiled at Harry, friendly as anything. 

"I'm Harry." Harry shook Liam's hand, feeling callouses beneath his fingers.

"Oh, you're the new roommate! It's good to meet you finally." Harry decided he liked Liam immediatedly.

"Ah saw yur brodder ahn theh wiy oover her. Nehrly taggled meh," Zayn grinned.

"Niall's not my brother," Liam sighed.

"Bu',"

"Zayn," Liam gave him a whithering look and Harry was sure he must be missing something. "Anyway. Harry. Welcome!"

"Thanks," Harry smiled.  
"So what are you two planning this afternoon?" Liam inquired, returning to his post behind the counter. "Do you want anything?" he added as an afterthought to Harry.  
"Just a cup of tea, please," Harry replied, handing over a crumpled banknote. He deposited the corresponding change into the tip jar, remembering how much he had loved getting tips.  
"Ah wooz thenkin' abawt wotchin' footeh bragdiss. Tha Tommo's gon' be thawr."  
"The Tommo?" Harry asked, curiously.  
"He's one of the star players," Liam explained, resting his forearms on the countertop.  
" 'E's fookin' fit, iz wha' he iz." Zayn commented. Harry's eyes widen. His roommate was gay? Zayn catch Harry's look and scowled defensively.  
"Ah'm nawt geh, don' loohk a' me lawk tha'!" Zayn snapped. "Louis' jus' sexeh as hell." Zayn shrugged, a slight smile tugging at the corner of his lip.  
"Zayn, you have a girlfriend," Liam admonished, sounding exasperated.  
"Sod auf, Ah knuw tha'" Zayn waved him away dismissively. Liam shook his head slowly, trying not to smile.  
"Everyone here is crazy," he told Harry, placing a hand on his arm. Harry couldn't tell if this was meant to be a warning or a reassurance. At any rate, he liked it.

 

Two weeks had gone by since Harry arrived at school. For the first few days, Zayn had really kept to himself, but by the end of thier fourth day together, they were joking around and laughing. Zayn was an education major, not an art major as he'd first thought.

"I wanted to major in art last year, but my old man threatened to cut my funding if I didn't get a 'real' degree." The more they talked, the less jarring Zayn's accent was to Harry, until he didn't notice it at all.

"That's rough," Harry empathized, tossing his banana peel at the rubbage bin.

"Well, I still get to take art classes. I want to be an art teacher, so I'm sort of like cheating. " Zayn grinned ironically. Harry rolled over on his side to take a better look at his roommate. Zayn looked for all the world like those kids your mother warned you about. His tattoos numbered in the double digits, he smoked, he had sizeable gauges and a streak of blond hair. Zayn was dating a girl with purple hair and more nights than not, he stumbled into the room with red-rimmed eyes, reaking of weed and he was known to wear black nail polish on a whim. But Harry didn't see that anymore. He saw Zayn's vast RnB collection, and the doodles on every scrap of paper in the room and the way he looked at Perrie. Cigarettes began to smell like home and he stopped questioning the sudden appearences of bottles of cheap wine on Zayn's desk. Yes, Zayn was a "bad boy", but he was also funny and off the walls and gentle and thoughtful and frankly, the perfect roommate for Harry.


	2. Zayn

It was a Thursday evening and neither of them had any classes the following day.

"Maude and I are going to go pay Niall visit. You wanna come?" Zayn lazily tugged at his boots. Maude was the name of Zayn's bong. He swore that it had alway been Maude and that it was just fate that he was now living with a Harold, but Liam told him that before Zayn found out Harry's name, the bong had been Matilda. Harry was flattered nevertheless that Zayn had named the bong after his sake.

Historically, Harry had always turned Zayn's offer down, but to Zayn's surprise, Harry nodded slowly. Zayn felt his face split into a grin. It wasn't that he wanted to corrupt his roommate, per se, but he sensed Harry's desire to live a little. Running a finger down the spines of a precarious stack of books, Zayn stopped at the copy of the Bible. It was his favorite book to be quite honest, though not for the reasons one might suspect. He was a Muslim, so he hardly cared for the writings, but he'd filched it from a hotel a few years prior with a very specific end in mind. Zayn had hollowed out a good deal of the Old and New Testements, from the book of Ruth to the book of Ephesians. In that hidden compartment, he stashed his weed, and -in secondary- the flashdrive that had held his porn collection (Perrie has since rendered it unnecessary).

Zayn emerged from the Good Book victoriously, the pouch of green herbs snagged between two slender fingers. "Let's get lifted," he smirked. Harry nodded enthusiastically, his lust-inducing curls bouncing. Zayn had seen the way girls tripped over themselves around Harry, but somehow he was almost entirely oblivious to their staring. Any sort of confidence that kid had was tied up in something enitrely seperate from his looks.

Niall shared a room with the Tommo. Louis Tomlinson was the star forward on the school footie team, and argueably the second most popular person of campus, after Niall. Louis was also the openly-gay lead singer of The Fuck-Ups, the best queer-core band in London. If Zayn was edgy, Louis was down-right dangerous, but alluringly so. He was vibrant, climbing-the-walls mad and impossibly charismatic. He was a theatre major, so Zayn had always just assumed it went along with the territory. That whole department was housed in the same complex as the Fine Arts department, and Zayn had concluded that the lot of them were a bit off, but mostly harmless. Mostly. Tommo had a reputation as a heart-breaker.

Zayn slipped through the door of their room, sweeping Niall's cluttered desk free of its empty beer cans before taking a seat. Harry had flopped onto Niall's bed. Within seconds, Louis had his head in Harry's lap, flirting aggressively. Zayn figured that Harry was at least bi-sexual, but it was clear that Harry didn't know it yet, so he basked in Louis attentions without returning his affection. It was amusing to watch.

"Zayn, you have the purple?" Niall giggled. Clearly, he'd started drinking without them. Despite his Irish heritage, Niall was a bit of a lightweight, so it only took a couple of beers to get him silly.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Zayn drawled, dangling the baggie in front of Niall's face. Niall snatched it away and eagerly began to pack a bowl. "Don't forget the water," Zayn reminded him.

"Yeah, I know." Niall waved him away impatiently. Within minutes the smell of pot filled the room.

"Oh, for god's sake, Niall!" Louis wailed, scrambling over Harry to crank the window wide open. "Are you trying to get us kicked out?" Niall giggled guiltily. Zayn sighed, trying to remember why he liked these two so much, when there was a knock on the door.

"Shit! Fuck, fuck, goddamn it!" Niall looked around the room, panicky, trying to find somewhere to stash the evidence.

"Open up in there, I know your up to no good," demanded the unknown through the door. Niall eyes grew wide, but Zayn immediatly relaxed as he recognized the voice as his girlfriend's. Popping off of the desk, he skittered over to the door opened it wide enough to pull Perrie inside. Attached to Perrie was her roommate, Jesy Nelson. Zayn very much liked Jesy; she'd been his dealer last year and he'd met Perrie through her. They had been roommates for two years running now. Jesy and Niall had a bit of a thing, mostly when they were drunk, and it was disgustingly cute. 

"Hello darling," Perrie kissed Zayn's cheek and shrugged off her knapsack. "I brought muchies," she sang. Zayn grabbed her by the waist and kissed he hard before letting go. 

"You're the best, boo."

"Ew, get a room, you two!" Jesy laughed. "Niall toss me that towel." Niall complied and she stuffed it in the crack under the door. "Now no one will know," she declared sagely. 

They all sat in a circle next to the bunked bed and passed Maude around the circle. When she got to Harry, he hesitated. 

"Ooh, first time! This is so exciting," Jesy squealed.

"It's easy enough, love," Perrie reassured him from her seat on Zayn's lap.

"Yeah, just suck it into your lungs." Harry imitated the actions of the others. "Now don't exhale. Not yet, wait for it, waaaait...okay," Harry exhaled, the smoke whooshing out of his mouth and doubled him over, coughing. 

"You got it!" Niall roared happily, slapping Harry's back. When Harry looked up with slightly glassy eyes and a sheepish smile, Zayn offered him a lazy grin and a thumbs up.

"Alright, gimme." Louis impatiently grabbed Maude out of Harry's hands and took a long hit. "Next time around I'm going to teach you how to shotgun," Louis declared breathlessly as the smoke escaped him.

Maude was passed around the circle again and again, until Zayn could feel spreading though his body as everything slowed down. He was suddenly accutely aware of the weight and warmth of his girlfriend on his lap. Lazily, he place kisses up and down her neck until she tilted her head back to rest on his shoulder. When Maude reached them, the shotgunned back and forth, which deteriorated into making out on the floor when Niall finally pried Maude away from them. Zayn sucked hickies along Perrie's collarbone, relishing the taste of her skin. He was slow, methodical; entirely wrapped up in this one all-consuming task. In the background, he was vaguely aware of the rest of the circle unravelling. Jesy and Niall were on his bed now, and Zayn snickered, because Jesy was a whole lot of woman and you could count Niall's ribs. Zayn felt Perrie's fingers in his hair, tugging slightly, and the sensation was delicious. He remebered Harry then, and pulled back slightly.

"Alright there, Harry?" Zayn looked over at him, because he did want Harry's first experience to be good, and to his surprise, Harry was sitting shirtless on Louis desk. The Tommo was considering him like a slab of clay he longs to shape. Then Louis whipped out a pen and began tracing designs all over Harry skin, making him giggle. 

"Stay still," Louis admonished, sounding like a schoolmarm. Zayn concluded that all was well and went back to making out with Perrie. Some where along the lines, Zayn lost his shirt and ended up fingering Perrie in Louis's top bunk, though he couldn't exactly figure how the two of them had wound up there. They could hear Jesy and Niall giggling below them, though the could not see what it was they were doing. Zayn licked Perrie off his fingers, savouring with a smug look on his face, and raised up on his forearms to look down at the room below. Harry's left shoulder and bicep was now covered in Louis's swirling ink design and the Tommo showed no signs of stopping. Harry was sitting stone still, but Zayn caught a glimpse of white wire, so he knew that Harry was listening to music. Zayn hoped it was Pink Floyd.

"Looking good there, Tommo," Perrie noted as she removed her soiled panties and tossed them to the floor before pulling her shorts back on. 

"You better pick those up when you leave," Louis warned, not bothering to turn around.

"Yeah, yeah, I will, I will," She muttered against Zayn's neck. "Can I blow you?" she asked him politely. 

Zayn felt a rush of adoration for her, even as the buzz was beginning to wear off. "I might take you up on that later."

"You know, mate, I can turn that into a tattoo if you fancy it," Zayn called down to Harry loudly. Harry started visibly, before twisting around. 

"Can you?" he asked in a voice of curious wonder.

"Oh, yeah," Zayn nodded magnimoniously. He'd even left his gun and ink in here from Louis' last tat, so he didn't have to fetch it.

"I think I'd like that," Harry decided in a dreamy, thoughful voice.

"Alright then." Zayn climbed out of the bed and set to work.


	3. Caroline

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song in this chapter is "His Girl Friday", by The Academy Is...

It was stupid. Quite stupid, actually. Although her appearance gave the impression of flightiness, Caroline was normally very rational, grounded, even. But then along came Harry Styles, a cheeky first year in her Media and Literature class, with wicked dimples and a sinful mouth. He was half her age, for chrissake! Not that it had mattered. What he lacked in experience he made up for in…well, it would suffice to say Harry was a quick learner outside of the classroom as well. Oh, god. Caroline pulled her scarf up a little bit higher around her neck, to hide the evidence of last night. How had this happened? It started innocently, it really did.  
Harry had emailed her with a question about the course work and one of the papers they were writing. She hadn't been able to match a face with the name when she'd offered to meet him at the campus coffee shop. And when she saw who it was...well, it was hardly her fault that he was lovely and charming and sweet. He was so earnestly interested in what she had to say, so easy to talk to. She'd so enjoyed herself that she though nothing of it when Harry had asked to chat again soon, off-book. Yes, he was 18, but they just clicked and my god, he was gorgeous. Caroline found his dimples so distracting that she could no longer look at him in class.  
When she reached her office, who should be sitting there but one Harold Styles, looking fucking edible wrapped in a scarf. When he spotted her, his face broke into that smile that had become more necessary that the sun.  
"Hey babe," He greeted her with a kiss on the cheek, pulling back with a smirk as she smacked his arm.  
"Harry," her voice was scandalized, but the smug grin on his face was the sexiest thing she'd seen all week and damn if if wasn't Friday.  
"I've been thinking about you all day," Harry flirted, his deep voice rumbling. Caroline bit her lip and offered him her best smolder eyes.  
"So are you going to tell me where you're taking me tonight?" She's been trying to drag it out of him all week, but Harry's been uncharacteristically tight-lipped. Harry just smiled. "Why you tell me?" She demanded in frustration, taking her car keys out of her desk drawer. "Will you at least tell me what I should be wearing on such an occasion as this?"  
Harry relented, opening his overnight bag and pulling out one of Caroline's dresses. "You can change when we get there," he explained, holding out his hand for the keys. Begrudgingly, she tossed him the key to her car and locked up her office behind them.

Harry took her down strange streets until Harry pulled up in a back alley. Caroline wasn't entirely familiar with this part of town; it was urban, industrial-in-transition, full of converted warehouses and dingy factory space. Harry led the way though a nondescript metal door and down a dimly lit hallway. At the sight of flaming red hair, Caroline began to suspect what was happening. The appearance of Harry's band mate Ed generally precluded some sort of music, and sure enough, there seemed to be noise coming from some sort of venue.  
"I brought you to our show," Harry explained happily. Caroline did not bother to hide her excitement. Even though Harry gave every appearance of being a clean-cut student on the outside, she had seen him naked and his growing collection of tattoos told an entirely different story. The first time, he had been between tattoos, numbers three and four, to be exact. The fact that her illicit boyfriend was secretly fronting a punk band was such a turn on. Harry made her feel like she was in school again, dating the hottest boy on campus. He made her feel special.  
Within minutes, Caroline found herself sipping a vodka cranberry and waiting for Harry's band, White Eskimo, to start. She'd changed and was earning a lot of stares from the younger college set, but luckily she recognized none of them. The lights dimmed and her eyes were glued to the stage. Ed walk on stage, guitar in hand. He grabbed the mic, checking it as Harry, Liam, and Andy filed in behind him. Caroline recognized Liam, on drums, vaguely as the boy who had served them at the coffee shop where she and Harry had first met together, and Andy, the bassist was a friend of Liam's. She was still a bit fuzzy on the details of how Ed and Harry had met, but she strongly suspected they were smoking buddies, initially.  
"Birds and blokes, we are White Eskimo and this is my natural hair colour." Without any warning, Liam counted banged out a rhythm on his drumsticks and Ed launched into a heavy guitar riff. Caroline vaguely recognized the music, but she was still at a point where all the pop-punk of White Eskimo sounded the same to her. She loved it none the less, seeing her boyfriend sweating through his white button-down and swinging the mic stand wildly.   
"If you knew what I knew, when no one's in the darkroom but me and you, a brilliant disguise." Harry growled into microphone. Ed's supporting vocals and Liam's back up matched perfectly, and Caroline found herself marveling, as she often did when White Eskimo preformed, at how she had managed to snag such a guy as Harry. His eyes sought her out in the crowd as he reached the chorus.  
"Come on a Monday, come on a Tuesday, they'll never know. Pop off a cork for Wednesday, play with me Thursday, but you'll always by his girl. His girl Friday, his girl Friday, his girl Friday. His girl Friday, his girl Friday, his girl Friday." Caroline could feel the wicked blush spreading across he face as Harry sang straight at her. Though she wasn't the swooning type, Harry brought he dangerously close to it. Okay, she swooned. A little. But how could she not?  
After the end of the show, Harry shook off all the flirting girls to make his way to Caroline.  
"Did you like the show?" His face was still flushed from the stage and his eyes were alight.  
"Magnificent, babe." Caroline pulled him down for long, breathless kiss. He smelled like sweat and sex and danger. When they broke apart, Harry downed the last of her drink and nodded at the door.  
"You ready to ditch this place?" Caroline nodded and grabbed his hand. Dating one of her students was a big mistake. She knew that. But not dating him would have been a far bigger one.


End file.
